Forms of the Dialogue and Religious Controversy in the Age of Reformation: Some Seminal Issues and an Attempt of Synthesis

Abstract

This paper focuses the literary development of the two main variants of Renaissance dialogue: the so called “historical-narrative” one, which relies on Cicero, and the “mimetic” and Lucianic one, which shares many features with the stage literature. In the 15. Century the “historical-narrative” form aims above all to handle moral topics in a rhetorical, undogmatic style. In the 16. Century it becomes more academic and didactic. The “mimetic” form shows a deeper concern with the political and religious actuality of the Reformation Age. Often it merges in the stream of militant pamphleteering. In this frame we are able to distinguish authors who stress regulation of everyday life, like Erasmus, from others who preserve more carefully Lucian’s mythologicals inventions and emphasize their satirical and polemic mood, although they don’t give up to express a propositive stance. This is the case, for instance, of Alfonso de Valdés’ Dialogue of Mercurius and Charon. Italian authors of the 16.th Century, such as Niccolò Franco, are especially bound to the imitation of Lucian in continuity with the Quattrocento and bestow a protagonic role to the god of criticism, Momus, who embodies social resentment and a strong yearning for renewal.